Connections
by alliterator
Summary: Everything's connected. Post-"Same Time, Same Place."


Title: Connections

Author: alliterator

Summary: Everything's connected. Post-"Same Time, Same Place."

Disclaimer: All belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and Fox, but I'm too lazy to ask their permission.

Willow sat on her bed, her legs crossed Indian style, her breath deep, her mind lost in the rush of meditation. The window was open and let in the cold, night air, which turned the room a freezing temperature. Willow let the wind flow over her; let her mind feel the connection between her and the wind. Giles had told her that everything was connected; that all magic, even life, was connected to the earth and the earth was connected to everything. Willow tried to feel the connection. She strengthened her mind with meditation and then pushed it through the walls and into another room.

Her mind entered Joyce's – no Buffy's room. It was Buffy's room now; she had taken it when Willow left. When Willow stayed in there, she always had referred to it as Joyce's room; somehow it always seemed motherly, like the head of the house should stay there. And now the head of the house was. Buffy was lying on her bed reading a book. Willow glanced at the title of the book: _Out of the Ether: the Mysteries of the Soul by Jerouc de Roupe. Willow, although tempted, decided not to ask her why she was reading it and left._

As she entered Dawn's room, she saw that Dawn was on the phone as usual. "I'm sorry you had to move, Janice," Dawn said, "but at least you don't have to go to Sunnydale High. I mean that place is just creepy." From the computer came a beeping sound that Willow recognized as an Instant Messenger. "I'll call you back." Dawn sat down at the computer and Willow looked at the person IMing her: Kit_87. Willow decided not to ask who Kit_87 was or why Dawn wasn't doing her homework. She thought for a moment and then decided it was time to venture out of the Summers' home.

Remembering Giles's words, Willow let her mind flow through Dawn's modem and from her modem into the telephone line. From the telephone line it was easy to get to Xander's apartment and she let her mind come through the phone.

She saw Xander sitting in a chair. He seemed to be trying to work out the construction crew's schedule for next week. She looked around at his apartment. It was different than she had seen it. There seemed to be no bright and fluffy things that Anya had so liked and the apartment looked strange without them. When Willow turned her attention back to Xander, she found him studying a picture of Anya. He looked at it thoughtfully and them looked at a piece of paper in the other hand, which had written on it NANCY 555-0917. Xander looked at both of them carefully and sighed. Willow decided to leave him alone.

Out through the microwave and from the microwave she pushed her mind to a telephone. She hopped telephone poles until she came to Anya's apartment and the came through Anya's answering machine.

Anya was in her kitchen, looking on a piece of paper that was written in what seemed to be an ancient dialect. Willow noted that everything in Anya's apartment looked neat and tidy. All the clothes in her closet were button up, straight blouses, which was definitely unlike the clothes Willow remembered Anya used to wear. When Willow turned back to Anya, Anya seemed discouraged. "Fruits and vegetables?" she said aloud. "Why would I be carrying any fruits and vegetables?" She threw the paper on the table and put her hand to her head. "Stupid form," she muttered. "No," she seemed to rectify, "stupid Xander for causing me to fill out this stupid form." Anya went quiet then and her face seemed to reflect sadness and a sort of despair. At that point, Willow felt like it was too much of an invasion of privacy and left.

Out through the television, from the TV to the grounding wires, and as she pushed her mind through them she wondered where she should go next. The new high school seemed a good option and she headed in that direction.

The high school was empty and dark. Willow could sense no one around – no wait, there was somebody. In fact, there were two people. She decided to go to the closest one. She went through the bell system until she came to the principal's office.

The sign on the desk read PRINCIPAL R. WOOD and as she wondered what the R. stood for, she saw the tall, African-American man behind the desk. He was typing away at the computer and as she glanced at the screen, she thought she saw the name Summers flash across it, but she wasn't sure. She decided to leave R. Wood and see who else was there.

Traveling through the concrete gave her shivers, but it was the fastest way to get to the basement. In the basement, she saw the hanging pipes, a mass of dripping metal. She looked around searching for the person she sensed.

Spike was huddled in the corner, hugging his knees. He was muttering something and once in a while he would shout out things like "It's still wet" or "Mum's expecting me." He looked beat up, both physically and mentally. His face was scratched, probably self-inflicted, and his hair was ruffled and dirty. As Willow looked closer, she saw what seemed to be something else surrounding him. When she met him before, she had been worried and hadn't taken enough time to really look at him deeply, but now when she saw him closer it seemed that there was a sort of light surrounding him. Something she hadn't seen on other vampires except for one... and then she saw something else. A darkness surrounding the light, clinging onto it like a parasite. As she tried to look closer, the darkness lashed out at her mind and she felt it. Cold. Pain. Rage. Fear. Hate. Dread. An abyss. She recoiled from its touch and she fled. She didn't bother to travel through wires or electricity; she just pushed her mind through the earth until it came back.

When her mind finally was pulled back into her body, she gasped. What was that? she asked herself. So many questions, her mind didn't have time to process them all. Was that the thing I felt in England? Is that the cause of Spike's insanity? If everything's connected, does that mean I'm connected to that... thing?


End file.
